Bill To Free Man Serving Life In Prison For Marijuana Moves Forward

A bill to free Jeff Mizanskey who is serving life without parole for cannabis, moved forward this Wednesday, April 8. The House Select Committee on Judiciary unanimously voted HB 978 “do pass.” The full House of Representatives can now act on this bill, if they choose to do so. The committee did amend the bill before passing it, in response to concerns about the bill’s constitutionality.

HB 978 no longer sets Jeff free outright upon passage. Rather, it allows for a hearing by the Parole Board. Jeff is a model prisoner without disciplinary problems or violence, and he would very, very likely be paroled if the board got the chance to hear his case. While this amendment is less than ideal, it increases the bill’s chances of moving forward.

On Wednesday, HB 930 also received a hearing by the House Emerging Issues Committee. Like HB 800, HB 930 would allow Missourians access to medical cannabis. However, HB 930 is far less restrictive than HB 800 and allows many more patients access to cannabis and creates more cultivation centers and dispensaries. It also includes a patient home-grow provision. It’s not a perfect bill, but it is far closer to our ideal medical cannabis system than HB 800, which was heard last month [VIDEO].

The hearing went extremely well. While there are clearly a couple of representatives who still remain skeptical of medical cannabis, many others are coming around to our way of thinking. Because of its less restrictive nature, HB 930 is less likely to advance than HB 800. Nonetheless, legislators discussed including some parts of HB 930 in HB 800 by amending before it comes up for a vote. Video of the HB 930 hearing is available here.

When multiple cannabis-related bills have hearings on the same day (and often at the same time), our research team stays busy. Tracking and filming hearings on cannabis legislation requires resources. If these updates are beneficial to you, please consider supporting them with a $10 or $25 contribution.

Schaeffer Cox in Alaska did not consume or grow any marijuana was simply jailed because govt didn’t like limited government speech. He got 26 years in prison because the court was allowed to “edit” his statements to make him look guilty & he was not allowed to defend himself. This is America. We have to keep reminding ourselves. This is America, the land of the free and the home of the brave. We are kidding ourselves. We are in a worse fascism than any in the history of the world that relies on the sheeple to stupidly defend the criminals.

Absolutely disgraceful.should have never happened. Hopefully somebody will finally use their brains and let this man free.no one should spend one day in jail for drug use or possession it’s a joke and it needs to stop.

We have created a criminal justice system that is less about protecting the public, and more about enforcing conformity, and morality. Politicians take advantage of people’s prejudices, and fears, to enact laws that punish people who’s lifestyles are outside of social norms. Then police, prosecutors, and judges destroy people as a warning to others to conform to the will of the majority. But freedom is for individuality, not conformity.

“Jeff is a model prisoner without disciplinary problems or violence” and would never have seen any part of the legal system if not for the absurd cannabis laws that are still being perpetuated on the population as I type this. Anyone, even those of lesser mental capacity can see the failure of prohibition. The fact that this is still an issue is one of the many reasons this country is in such a state of disorder. I can get out in 10-15 for murder and less for assaulting a child. The fact that they are even debating whether to do the JUST thing with this case is pathetic.